The Jerusalem Post
November 4, 2004, Thursday
The Local Scene
Lionel Gaffen, Jerusalem Post Sports Staff
Shooters 4th in World Cup Finals
Israeli Olympic shooters Alex Danilov and Guy Starik each narrowly
missed medals last week at the International Shooting Sport Federation
year-end event, the World Cup Final, held this year in Bangkok.
The pair were each invited to take part in the prestigious 12-man
competitions due to their performances this year on the World Cup
circuit.
Starik, whose specialty is the 50-meter Men’s Prone Rifle, finished
with a combined score of 699.4, leaving him 0.5 short of a medal,
behind Sergei Martynov of Belarus. Germany’s Christian Lusch took gold
with 702.1, while silver went to another Belarusian, Yury
Scherbatsevich, with 700.6. Starik, who was ranked second in the world
prior to the Olympics, placed a disappointing 16th of 47 riflemen in
Athens.
Danilov came even closer in the Men’s 50-meter pistol, finishing with a
combined 660.5 total, just 0.1 behind the bronze medalist Zonglian Tan
of China. Martin Tenk of the Czech Republic took top honors with 664.1,
followed by China’s Xinglong Shi in second with 661.6. Danilov placed
15th of 47 shooters in Athens.* Lionel Gaffen
Friedman gets NIS 285,000 from OCI
The Olympic Committee of Israel financially rewarded the county’s top
athletes and their coaches for their 2004 performances at a ceremony in
Caesarea on Wednesday night.
Olympic gold medalist Gal Friedman leads the list of recipients with
NIS 285,000 – NIS 240,000 for the gold plus NIS 45,000 as the inaugural
winner of the Yoram Oberkovich Athlete of the Year award.
Sailing coach Gur Steinberg, who guided Friedman and Lee Korzits in
Athens, was presented with NIS 150,000. Israel’s other Olympic
medalist, judoka Arik Ze’evi, received NIS 110,000 – NIS 80,000 for his
Olympic bronze and NIS 30,000 for his European championship title.
Tigers 1-hit Eilat before showdown
Ilan Spira and Elyaeed Moore combined to strike out nine batters as the
Tigers geared up for next week’s matchup with fellow unbeatens Penticon
by one-hitting Otsma Eilat for a 10-6 win in the Israel Softball
Association fall tournament. Eilat’s only hit was a double by Yoni
Weiss.
Eilat also lost to Tri United 8-3. Ari Shapiro broke a 3-3 tie with a
single and then made a beautiful catch in the outfield as the Tri-U
defense came up big on several occasions. Stu Schrader homered and Mark
Chass had three hits for the winners. Guy Liyani had three hits
including a triple, and Yoni Weiss had three hits and a home run for
Otsma.
Triple T rode a nine-run second inning to a 17-9 defeat of Elmhurst
Dairy. Roni Bossin scored four runs and David Rubinstein drove in four
with a pair of homers to lead the Triple T offense. Yosi Ajzenwaser
pitched two fine innings in his return to the mound. Binyamin Kamilar
had two hits and two runs for Elmhurst.
Magic Homes forfeited to Penticon.
The fall tournament comes to a close this week as Penticon and the
Tigers meet to decide first place and Triple T and Tri United will lock
horns over third place.
Fifth place finish for chess masters
An Israel draw with Cuba combined with Armenian and American 3.5-0.5
wins over Georgia and Norway, respectively, saw Israeli fall to fifth
place on the final day of the Chess Olympics that came to a close on
Sunday in Majorca, Spain.
Israel’s team, consisting of Boris Gelfand, Emil Sutovsky, Ilia Smirin,
Boris Avrukh, Alexander Huzman, and Michael Roiz, won seven, drew five,
and lost just two matches at the three-week tourney, while totaling
34.5 points. Third place Armenia (8-4-2) tallied 36.5 points, while the
Americans (7-4-3) finished with 35.
Ukraine, the only team to go undefeated of the 129 in the competition,
earned 39.5 points with its 10-4-0 mark. Russia (11-0-3), which also
had 36.5 points, edged Armenia for second based on its better record.
Israel was among the teams that managed a draw against the Ukrainians,
but a draw against Moldova, which placed 36th, and defeats against
Russia and Armenia proved costly in the end.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress